fantheflame | 1st fan

[Action: Awakening ((Closed))]

[Sasuke is not enjoying getting used to being unsure of things. But he is - unsure - and finds that while the things he is unsure of are troubling, the state of unsurety isn't as terrifying as it used to be.]

[Right now, there are two very important things he's unsure of: whether he's alive or dead, and, if the second, whether this is heaven or hell.]

[The last thing he remembers? His deranged excuse for a... cousin of sorts? Taking on the ten-tails as its container. And now he's here - wherever here is - standing in a stranger's bedroom, holding a photograph of his brother with (presumably) that stranger. He awoke nearly naked with a pair of wings sprouted from his own back, and now he's somewhere with evidence of one of the dead. What else could have happened?]

We lost, huh...?

[Something like guilt makes a feeble case for life in his chest, but it's hard to feel guilty when you don't remember an ending. Instead he's just... staring at this photograph. One thumb swipes idly across the cool glass, over Itachi's face, half-expecting it to vanish once obstructed. It doesn't.]

[He's not sure whether to feel a sense of final relief - he's here, and, it seems, so is Itachi - or sick doom - who the hell is this complete stranger who's gotten to share in his brother's... something. Not life, maybe, but...]

[The Itachi in the picture is almost smiling, and his eyes look more alive than Sasuke remembers since they were very small.]

[Action: Examination ((Sometime Later; Open))]

[Sasuke is - a little bit of everywhere. He doesn't exactly believe... most of this. Half thinks this is some sadistic side-plot in Obito's (Madara's?) ridiculous Moon's Eye genjutsu (keeps having to remind himself he wouldn't know that exists if that were the case). So he's exploring - barracks, apartments, the shrine, the forest - here one moment, maybe lingering to examine (Sharingan blazing red the entire time) - and then gone in a flicker, off to the next place. He's not taking particular care to remain hidden (really, he doesn't care who sees him in what may be a fake or an illusion or a dream), but he's not being loud about his presence either.]

[Follow-Up Action: Drained ((Closed to Sakura))]

[One thing Sasuke should maybe have done was paid attention to the tidbits he's heard about halved powers, weakened chakra, difficulty... being, as a shinobi.]

[Because now, feeling more physically real than he has the entire time he's been here - how could he be this bone-tired in a dream? - he's slumped on hands and knees on the riverbank just to the north of town, eyes fading back and forth between blazing red and dim grey-black, breath harsh in and out of his lungs. How did he run so quickly out of chakra? How did Sharingan run him so quickly out of chakra?]

[His eyes fade back to dull black and stay there at last, and he lifts a hand to brush sweaty bangs out of his eyes, feeling at once overheated and clammy. Maybe he's had his question answered, finally, and this is hell.]

[Voice: Greeting ((Sometime Later; Open))]

--believe this thing - hm.

[It's a voice some will recognize.]

If paper can really record - whatever. I'm told I've been here before. I don't think I believe that. I certainly don't remember it.

Some of you know me. That's fine. Some of you would rather you didn't, and that's fine too.

I don't know what you know and I don't know what kind of bullshit this jutsu or hell or whatever it is is pulling, and I don't entirely care.

You should know I'm no longer an enemy of Konoha.

Believe me or don't, but I don't intend to fight you.

[There's a shift, and a few long seconds of tape-recorder not-quite-silence, followed by a muffled shuffle of movement over paper before the recording ends.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Speaking of hard not to notice, all the noise the bat-creature is making definitely attracts Sasuke's attention - and its coloration doubly so, once he bothers to light eyes on the thing.]

[There's a lot of strangeness in this place, that's for sure.]

Not so much.

[Sasuke's reply is equally cool, though his red gaze flickers to the fluttering thing every now and again as he speaks.]

Nothing useful means nothing interesting. My only interest is getting out.

[Ooh, is that person looking at him? Is he? Despite the piercing gaze, Riku's bat buddy squeaks and flutters just a little bit closer... at least until Riku places an arm out in front of him.]

Easy there, Sonar.

[They don't even know who this guy is yet. Can't get too friendly.]

If you're looking to get out, you might want to quit while you still can. Fact is, leaving Luceti's not as easy as walking out the front door. People leave, but it's never their call.

"While I still can"?

[Sasuke quirks an eyebrow at both the turn of phrase and the squeaking bat-beast, ever-wary about all of this. All of everything here in this - whatever this place is; he's still not sure or convinced.]

What will happen if I don't stop trying?

[It's not sarcastic, or even really curious - if anything, it's a little too hard-deadpan. Sasuke wants the facts if he can find them, but he's taking absolutely everything (including the notion that this isn't all a huge fever-dream) with a grain of salt.]

Okay, maybe my phrasing was a little extreme, but if you don't stop...

[He shrugs, folding his arms over his chest.]

You'll probably run yourself into the ground. You'll be clmbing an uphill slope with no end, and it'll distract you from everything else. And the fact is, we're stuck in an enclosure with a barrier nobody can break in a world that nobody's found a surefire escape from. Not even the guys who dumped us in this village.

[It's all said with a firm tone and a stiff expression. Riku's been around the block. Luceti's been his home for four years, so he doesn't speak lightly by any means.

Meanwhile, his bat's continuing to wear a goofy smile.]

You may luck out and return in the blink of an eye, but until then, it's better to focus on what's here, threats and all.

[The words are not what Sasuke wants to hear, and in almost every other case, he'd dismiss them. Riku's tone, though - that gets his attention. There's a surety to it that feels familiar: not the long-suffering condescension he's used to from those he used to call his teachers. If anything, he can almost feel more than hear that the knowing in it is personal. If only he'd stop long enough, he might be self-aware of why.]

So what here should I count among my threats?

[There's the smallest shift to his stance as he turns the corner of his shoulder a few degrees in the other's direction, subtle, but clear: should I count you?]

Well, you can cross me off your list.

[To prove this point, he holds up both of his hands at chest level as f to show he's harmless.]

What you really want to worry about are the threats outside this barrier. Threats like the Third Party and the Malnosso.

[Sasuke wasn't about to take anyone at their word on not being a threat, but Riku's display did at least have him relaxing a little. If not really lowering his guard. But he turned back to face the other more fully, Sharingan gaze eying the other carefully. ...He wasn't entirely sure what he saw, when it came to the other's chakra, but he was definitely certain Riku wasn't on the level of a civilian.]

[Malnosso got his attention; Itachi had mentioned them, if detail had been lacking.]

Care to enlighten me?

Sure.

[He shrugs.]

Not like I've got any big plans for the day. So, if you really want to know, I guess I should start with the Malnosso, since you'll probably get the most exposure to them.

[He once again crosses his arms, shooting a look to the side.]

The thing about the Malnosso is that they're a huge organization... and a fractured one. They've got so many warring factions that it's hard to tell what their motives really are. They claim that they're trying to find a way out of this world, and they even set up missions that offer prizes for participation... but the trade-off's that we're all forced to deal with their stupid experiments and drafts that pull in noncombatants left and right.

It's for a good cause, maybe. The Third Party's powerful, and they'll stop at nothing to kill us off for good. Still, I wouldn't trust the Malnosso as far as I could throw 'em. Not when they make a habit of screwing with our heads whenever their Shifts roll around.

[Sasuke finds himself suddenly being battered by new vocabulary, but he doesn't flinch. It's time to dissect this, one word at a time.]

Who are the Third Party, and what is their interest in killing us?

[Us. Like Sasuke's part of this village. Maybe, until he finds a way out, he's going to have to be.]

The best way to think of them is a crazy cult.

[He sneers.]

They've got huge wings capable of actual flight, and they've got this crazy idea in their head that killing us through their wacky rituals will somehow "free" us from this world. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but the important thing to know is that they're a mutual enemy of us and the Malnosso.

[...Interesting.]

I take it you have some way of knowing that getting killed by one doesn't actually send you home.

Someone gave a report a while back. Spoke with their leader, and apparently they plan to offer us to the planet.

[...]

Pretty sure sending us back home would clash with that plan.

1st fan

[action forever]

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